Wizards

The Lakers have been over .500 for just one game this season -- after their opening-night win over the Clippers. At 7-7, the Lakers are at .500 for the fourth time this year, with another chance to surpass it as they visit the Washington Wizards (5-8) on Tuesday night. The Wizards started the season slowly but have recently improved, winning three of their last four. Bradley Beal, the team's leading scorer at 20.6 a night, is questionable with a leg injury. Even so, the Wizards should still be a challenge for the Lakers.

Washington Wizards 116 - Lakers 111 (end of regulation) The Lakers had a chance to beat the Washington Wizards on the road but fell short in the final two minutes. Pau Gasol put the Lakers up 108-107 with 1:54 left on the clock. After a John Wall jumper, the Lakers turned the ball over twice -- allowing the Wizards to take a 113-108 lead with 28.9 seconds left. Gasol converted a three-point play with 24.5 seconds left to put the Lakers within two. Wall split a pair of free throws with 18.1 seconds to give the Lakers lift, down three.

Quotage All Knicked up New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony , on the discrepancy between the Houston Rockets being awarded 44 free throws and the Knicks 27 during a Rockets victory: "You see how guys get their calls. Me, I've got to get cut. You've got to see blood for me to get a call down there. " Of Mozart and Popovich Washington Wizards forward-center Nene , on being soundly beaten by the San Antonio Spurs: "They kicked our butts in the most classy way - playing the right way. It's crazy, that's what makes me mad. Our young guys think they're so smart.

Former Lakers shooting guard Shannon Brown was traded by the Phoenix Suns on Friday to the Washington Wizards. His stay in Washington was brief. The Wizards waived Brown on Monday, despite his $3.5-million guaranteed salary. If he clears waivers in 48 hours, Brown will become a free agent. Originally acquired by the Lakers in 2009 in a trade with the Charlotte Bobcats, Brown helped the Lakers win back-to-back NBA titles in 2009 and 2010. It's unclear if the Lakers would be interested in a reunion with the athletic, 6-foot-4 guard.

Like most little girls, I loved the movie “The Wizard of Oz” even though, or maybe because, it left me with so many questions. Is Dorothy's visit to the garish Technicolor Oz really supposed to be a dream (that crushing departure from L. Frank Baum's book)? When she wakes up in Kansas, why doesn't anybody mention Miss Gulch's threat to kill Toto? Also I've never felt right about Dorothy's farewell confession to the Scarecrow, “I think I'll miss you most of all.” It's one of the most romantic moments in cinema, but, Dude!

"Jobs" opens with a scene of technology entrepreneur Steve Jobs introducing the iPod in 2001. As the Apple Inc. co-founder makes his way to a small stage, he passes ads for his own company that feature images of Einstein, Gandhi and Bob Dylan. For the next two hours, the film remains about that unsubtle in its attempts to portray Jobs as a genius for the ages. The movie's awe-struck attitude is even more odd and unconvincing considering that the film actually doesn't shy away from portraying its subject as ruthless, overbearing and generally self-centered.

Margaret Pellegrini, one of the last of the 124 little people who played Munchkins in the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz," died Wednesday at her Glendale, Ariz., home. She was 89. The 4-foot-tall Pellegrini, a frequent guest of honor at "Oz" festivals around the U.S., had been in declining health since a stroke in March, said Colleen Zimmer, an organizer of the annual Oz-Stravaganza festival in Chittenango, N.Y., birthplace of "Oz" author L. Frank Baum. Illness kept Pellegrini from serving as grand marshal at this year's event.

What if you want to make a coin disappear - to one moment display it in the palm of your hand and the next pull it out of a friend's ear? What if you'd like to say to a stranger, "Pick a card, any card," then shuffle the deck and, just like that, produce the right one? How do you learn to turn a handkerchief into flowers? To push a bottle cap through the glass bottom of a Coke bottle? You probably could hop on the Internet and watch a YouTube video. But really, where's the magic in that?